Disappointed

Harrison's Caves

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Our experience in Barbados was not great.  It started with the cab drivers at port, who were very rude.  They turned their backs on us, laughed, and generally refused to speak politely to us when we tried to negotiate a price.  They wanted $75 for the three of us to go to Harrison's Caves, when my book said to expect to pay $35.  So, we just got the two dollar shuttle into town (where the ships dock is sort of far from things but it is possible to walk) and then looked into public transportation.  We ended up finding these yellow buses, ran by a private company, and a helpful young man (working for the company) made sure we got on the right bus.  We chose to go to Harrison's Caves, an activity I read about in my Insider's guide book.

The bus ride was a little scary (they drive fast!) and headache-inducing (the music was far too loud) but the everybody was pleasant enough.  Once we got off we had a little walk to the caves through a rural area.  People in their yards were very nice, pointing out the way for us without us even asking - perhaps they are used to tourists walking that way. 

Harrison's Caves

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The caves were disappointing.  I've been on some really neat cave tours, and this one had to be the least interesting and exciting of all.  A good option if you can't walk well or handle much physical activity, I guess.  For $21 each we got on the tour.  First you watch a little video, then they load you on a little electric car, just open aired cars with bench seating.  Beware that the ceiling will drip all over you during the tour.  The car proceeds to drive through the caves very slowly.  We were allowed off a couple of times for pictures but otherwise it was impossible to take good pics while moving.  There seemed to be problems with the lighting, as well, and the tour guide seemed even more bored than we were.  Not much commentary there.  Still, we got to see an underground waterfall, and at least we helped out the economy.  With some work they could develop it into a really neat attraction, but they have a lot of work to do.

After that we walked back to the bus stop and had a long, sweaty (un-air conditioned) ride back to Bridgetown.  The bus let us off at a different station then where we got on, so we did some wandering before we found our way back to the shuttle area.  Then, very tired, we just went back to the ship!